Very clair and concise video again, Jon. It's really well explained and you're a pleasure to listen to. Unlike some Americans that start EVERY sentence with "so what you wanna do is you gonna wanna..." .
Hey Jon. A confused newbie here. If I sharpen one side of a knife, create a burr on the opposite side, flip the sides and do the same (let's say I've created a pretty big burr on the first side this time) - when I get to the point of stropping on the stone - is my intention to move the burr side to side ? If there's a big burr, do I strop that side until I feel the burr opposite side ? I've never seen anyone checking for the burr at point of changing sides when stroping, and it's usually predetermined amount of motions (like do 5 strokes one side, then 5 another side, or do 5 alternating strokes). That's the point I struggle to understand. Would appreciate the answer. Greets
When you're stropping using your sharpening or polishing stone...does it matter what grit you're using? Does it have to be 5000 grit or more? I assumed most usually used a leather strop with some DMT compound....or denim...etc.
I don't think that there is a single right answer to this. For instance, if you create a very large burr, you may want to do it in between stones. However, more often than not, I just do this at the end. Try both and see what works best for you.
Japanese Knife Imports Hi Jon. I have a question about this video and micro bevels. Where does the micro bevel stage fit with regards to the method you show here. Is it either or? Or do you do it after the stropping and "tearing" shown here?
Japanese Knife Imports Thabks ill take a look at the Gesshin line, how they feel like on the knives? More on the hard side like choseras or softer? I collect stones and would like to have a few of these it looks great. Thanks for the fast response.
There are a wide variety of stones we have, so it depends on the stone. Feel free to e-mail me with more specific questions at jon@japaneseknifeimports.com
Well-put & informative content as always Jon. Curious to know how you feel about loaded strops and that sort when it come to kitchen knives. I have read from other people on the forums of using a plethora on compounds after a finishing stone greatly improving their edge. Not sure if it was real talk or knife nerds flexing their egos and totally geeking out. I have never used them before because I am happy with the working edge I get off a 6K and de-burring with hard felt, plus they seem expensive. How do you feel about them? Unnecessary?
They are effective, but not necessary. Should i make a video on that too? I just wanted this video to be about the movements of stropping, what its designed to do, and why one does it. Burr removal just kind of came hand in hand with it. For what its worth, i rarely strop kitchen knives on anything other than stones or newspaper (unloaded and dry).
Japanese Knife Imports A video would do a lot for the knife community. Like many topics on kitchen knives, there are always some frustratingly bad discussions containing so much misinformation and regurgitated BS. Some of your videos that have covered a number of these topics put a lot of what is said in these discussions to rest. Definitely consider it, many would greatly appreciated it. Thanks Jon.
Japanese Knife Imports I have used loaded strops before, and they do help out quite a bit. For kitchen knives, they aren't necessary if your work on the stones is proficient enough. Yes, it can be expensive if you let it, but it does have it's place. Jon, does stropping on loaded compounds exist in Japan as far as kitchen knives go? My guess is it made it's way into the kitchen knife world by way of the other genres in sharpening, folders, razors ect.
Marcus Delgado not so much in japan... people do strop things, but rarely kitchen knives on loaded strops (and by rarely, i mean i've never seen any one of the craftsmen i work with do it)
yeah... the large transparent container is a 4in deep lexan hotel pan by Cambro (you can find them on amazon) and the rest you can find on our website here: www.japaneseknifeimports.com/collections/sharpening-supplies
How much pressure are you applying on the knife during the lateral deburr stroke? It could just be the angle of the video, but it looks to be a noticeable amount more than what is done for the stropping strokes. Is the point of the stroke that the knife even grazing the stone with a properly fatigued burr will cause it to fall off?
+sonespazz518 its still very light pressure... if you pressed on a kitchen scale, it would likely be between 100-200g. In terms of how it removes the burr, that is the idea... its shears it off.
Straight razors would benefit from different techniques. Stropping is quite important though. You’ll want to use higher grit stones too. While some of the principles here will still hold true, i would recommend looking at some more straight razor focused videos.
At 3:07, you talk about how you can strop in either direction. I've heard opinions about aligning the "teeth" of the knife. Do you think a bias in one direction can cause issues?
I’ve explored this a bit over the years. While there is a difference, its quite minimal. It wasn’t worth the effort in my experience. Quick and effective made a bigger difference than the direction of the teeth. Bite can be controlled by grit too.
Hey, you had mentioned knife hitting the stone. While I'm doing normal sharpening I sometimes feel my knife stop and dig into the stone - how can I avoid this? Is it a mix of less pressure + a better angle?
without watching your sharpening, its hard to say, but as long as you focus on applying pressure on the edge trailing stroke and relaxing on the edge leading stroke when doing your normal sharpening, it should be possible to minimize the issues you are experiencing.
I am new at this so here goes the likely dumb question. :-) How long did it take you to perfect holding the knife at the proper angle when stropping the blade and is there a particular technique you suggest when learning how to hold the angle through the entire stropping stroke? Warned you it was dumb but there it is and I anxious for your reply. I have nearly 3 dozen kitchen knives to sharpen to a razor cutting edge. LOL If I am lucky maybe that small German steel paring knife will work for me each morning at shaving time. (levity only)
ML Howard honestly, dont remember... it took time... more than a year. But part of that was just a lack of understanding in the beginning. Its just a lot of practice... but using sharpie helps.
ML Howard It DOES take an insane amount of practice, but watching videos like these and making sure your not practicing bad habits is good. The way I learned to strop and hold a consistent angle is by stropping on hard leather. In fact that is how I learned to hold my angles for everything. Lay the knife flat on your leather strop, and start going backwords. The knife will first feel scratchy, and as you lift the spine, all of the sudden the stroke will feel very smooth, at THAT point you are on the edge, if you keep rolling the knife up, it will feel rough/scratchy again, that is where you have gone over angle. I sharpen 3-10 knives a day free hand, now. Its ganna take you probably about 700 knives to get it down, that sounds crazy but over a years time its not much! Good luck!
So I know this video is super old, but what I'm confused about is that my knife apexes on both sides, and I can clearly feel the burr, although it's small. After I polish the burr off it doesn't grab into my finger. It slides a little. Any idea what this could be. I do not feel any burr remaining on either sides, so I'm wondering how my edge isn't grabbing.
probably need to have a conversation about your specific burr removal process... either email me at jon@japaneseknifeimports.com or call my store during store hours... happy to help if I can
i havent measured in any quantative way, but it can be quiet light. My experience is that little (read:insignificant) to no damage is caused, assuming you've done a good job weakening the burrs connection to the edge and making it as small as possible. But i do a couple of stropping motions afterwards just to be safe. The idea is that this particular sponge doesn't contain any abrasive on that side... just woven extruded plastic. You can use felt, your pants, whatever.
@@JKnifeImports thank you so much for the reply Jon, I will keep it in mind. Is any sponge that is labeled as non-scratch fine or just this specific one?
@@jjshane72 i dont have a good answer for that on the sponge, but you can probably just ask the maker. The goal is to find something scratchy enough to catch the burr, but not hard enough to cause scratching on the edge.
I got some horsehide veggy tanned leather . ( I was told this is best) Should I use the shallow/super soft firm side or the more fuzzy side? or 1 of each? Should I leave one un touched and 1 compound? ALL my knives are convex from my work sharp belt system. ANY info would be great Semper Fi
+BOOSTEDLASER a lot of people like leather, but i personally rarely use it. It does work well, and there are a lot of correct ways to use them. Why not ask the vendor, from whom you bought them, what they recommend? For what its worth, i prefer more textured surfaces, harder leather, and coarser compound (1micron at the smallest). But that is for kitchen knives and also has a lot to do with personal preference.
I'm using this one: www.japaneseknifeimports.com/collections/sharpening-accessories/products/stone-holder-1 along with this: www.japaneseknifeimports.com/collections/sharpening-accessories/products/large-stone-holder-1 and all sitting inside a 4in deep hotel pan
nope... we're still here. The knife is not a hiromoto AS. Its a gesshin kagero 210mm gyuto like this: www.japaneseknifeimports.com/collections/gesshin-kagero/products/gesshin-kagero-210mm-powdered-steel-gyuto-nt
for sure... if you're looking for stainless clad blue super options, like the hiromoto AS, we have a few that we normally carry. Feel free to bug me anytime via e-mail at jon@japaneseknifeimports.com
It is a gesshin kagero 210mm western gyuto... www.japaneseknifeimports.com/collections/gesshin-kagero/products/gesshin-kagero-210mm-powdered-steel-gyuto-nt
yes, but its pretty useless as a real life concept... first, you dont remove fatigued steel. Second, you're more likely to form a tiny burr anyways. Third, most people are not sitting there with a microscope to check their work. And forth, most people are not sharpening experts and need the guidance a burr offers... making sure you are actually sharpening the edge, removing fatigued steel, and removing the same amount of metal at each place along the blade length. While its a nice concept (and possible to do), i dont really think it holds much stock as a reasonable method of sharpening in the vast majority of cases.
Japanese Knife Imports I am not sure we are talking about the same thing. By not forming a burr I am just talking about the process of grinding only, not the other steps in sharpening such as removing weakened steel, how to check sharpness, how to know when to stop etc. . For example, you can cut the knife into the stone before starting to sharpening which not only removes weakened metal, but also keeps the edge curvature consistent, keeps the tip/choil properly formed, removes micro-chips, etc. .
Cliff Stamp even with that, you will still have burr removal to do somewhere along the way. Moreover, the chances are high that instead of stopping in the exact instant the apex is reached, most people will overshoot this instant a bit (if not more than a bit). Its not that i dont think this kind of sharpening is possible, i just dont find it to be particularly practical when i can just sharpen on a coarse stone, remove fatigued metal, etc., and then spend the rest of my sharpening reducing and removing the burr, resulting in a clean edge that is just as good as the edge produced by a perfect performance of the burrless sharpening method.
Japanese Knife Imports John, it is unfortunate I don't live close to you, we seem to be talking about two very different things. I am actually talking about a simpler/faster procedure, not a more complicated one. In any case, appreciate the response.
Cliff Stamp I actually think we are talking about the same thing, but what is simple and faster for you will be nearly impossible for most of the people who watch and rely on this videos and similar ones. But on the speed comment, I'd love to show you how fast and consistent the way i sharpen is ;) Either way, its important to have discussions like this, so thanks for bringing it up.
@@rfrankhuizen its one of our own… the gesshin 6000 Resinoid based stone. It’s technically a splash and go stone, but really works best when permanently soaked (as has been my experience with most Resinoid based stones). However, you have to be careful when soaking Resinoid stones, as they can crack with repeated soaking and drying (specifically by drying to quickly). This is one of my favorite finishing stones, especially for wide bevel or single bevel knives.
